Bolo
Contributing Partner
Quite suddenly the Raymarine i60 wind instrument at my helm stopped showing the apparent wind reading, after almost two years, and now only show “0.0 kts”. The wind direction pointer is working however. So I did the usual check of the connections to see if there was loose wiring, there wasn’t. Then I downloaded a Raymarine document titled “Masthead Wind Transducer Test” which I’ve provided a link to here. In that document there is a section called, “Testing with a multimeter” that shows the five different wires that are in the cable that are connected to the mast head wind transducer.
i60 First being installed but not yet broken.
It also shows the expected voltage readings to be from each wire (using the uninsulated shield wire as ground or negative) to check if the cable has no breaks and if the mast head wind transducer is working properly. So I checked them all and paid particular attention the the yellow wire which carries the wind speed signal. All voltages corresponded to the “expected reading” ranges with the yellow (wind speed) voltage showing 3.2 volts when the wind was light which consequently is the best time to test according to Raymarine. So according to the test voltages the apparent wind speed indicator should be working but, of course, it’s not.
The test instructions state that’ “If any of the measurements on the Blue, Green or Yellow show a static voltage when the cups/vane are moving then you may have a fault in the wind vane, or more commonly some moisture inside the mast head connector or damage to the cable. So does "static" mean unchanging voltage? Wondering that because, although the wind speed was light when preformed the test, the voltage remained constant (static?).
I also spent time playing with the buttons on the display at the helm because once I had accidentally set the wind speed for “True” and not the usual “Apparent” which caused the reading to be blank. I don’t have a “through the water” transducer in the hull so “True” wind speeds are not possible. Changing the wind to apparent brought the reading back so I thought that maybe I accidentally pressed the wrong button again but no combination of button pressing, using the manual as my guide, could bring the reading back.
My question to any of you with a Raymarine i60 Wind instrument is, of course, has this happened to you and if so what did you do to solve the problem? Or what do you think could be causing the problem? Going to the boat again to try and solve my issue and going sailing because you don’t really need a wind speed indicator to go sailing, just your senses. If I can’t solve the problem then the marina “tech wizard” is going to take a look at it. IMO, it’s either the mast head unit (but that passed the transducer test) or the display which has no testing instructions available short of pulling the display and finding if it works on another boat with the same Raymarine wind setup as mine.
i60 First being installed but not yet broken.
- Black (uninsulated wire shield)
- Red (Supply to wind vane)
- Green (Wind angle)
- Blue (Also wind angle)
- Yellow (Wind speed).
It also shows the expected voltage readings to be from each wire (using the uninsulated shield wire as ground or negative) to check if the cable has no breaks and if the mast head wind transducer is working properly. So I checked them all and paid particular attention the the yellow wire which carries the wind speed signal. All voltages corresponded to the “expected reading” ranges with the yellow (wind speed) voltage showing 3.2 volts when the wind was light which consequently is the best time to test according to Raymarine. So according to the test voltages the apparent wind speed indicator should be working but, of course, it’s not.
The test instructions state that’ “If any of the measurements on the Blue, Green or Yellow show a static voltage when the cups/vane are moving then you may have a fault in the wind vane, or more commonly some moisture inside the mast head connector or damage to the cable. So does "static" mean unchanging voltage? Wondering that because, although the wind speed was light when preformed the test, the voltage remained constant (static?).
I also spent time playing with the buttons on the display at the helm because once I had accidentally set the wind speed for “True” and not the usual “Apparent” which caused the reading to be blank. I don’t have a “through the water” transducer in the hull so “True” wind speeds are not possible. Changing the wind to apparent brought the reading back so I thought that maybe I accidentally pressed the wrong button again but no combination of button pressing, using the manual as my guide, could bring the reading back.
My question to any of you with a Raymarine i60 Wind instrument is, of course, has this happened to you and if so what did you do to solve the problem? Or what do you think could be causing the problem? Going to the boat again to try and solve my issue and going sailing because you don’t really need a wind speed indicator to go sailing, just your senses. If I can’t solve the problem then the marina “tech wizard” is going to take a look at it. IMO, it’s either the mast head unit (but that passed the transducer test) or the display which has no testing instructions available short of pulling the display and finding if it works on another boat with the same Raymarine wind setup as mine.
